Take It Off
Take It Off" is a song performed by Ke$ha. It serves as the third track on Ke$ha's debut album'' Animal. Cross-references *A gold trans am is mentioned in "Gold Trans Am" and "Thinking of You". Background "Take It Off" was written by Ke$ha, alongside Dr. Luke and Claude Kelly. It was recorded at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, and at Dr. Luke's studio in that same city. The song was produced by Luke with vocal editing done by Emily Wright. During an interview with Esquire magazine Ke$ha was asked about her song writing process and used "Take It Off" as an example of how her songs come to fruition. She explained that the song came about when she was out one night and was visiting a transsexual bar, stating, "I have a song called 'Take It Off' about when I went to a drag show, and how really turned on I was by these transvestite men taking clothes off. I was like, What does that even make me?". Music video '''First version': The original video for "Take It Off" premiered on August 3, 2010. It was directed by Paul Hunter and Dori Oskowitz. Ke$ha revealed the main idea behind the video in an interview explaining that "video was about her and all her hot vampire babe friends breaking into a hotel on another planet, and at the end we all turn into this beautiful stardust. Once you take it all off, all your inhibitions, your clothes, we're all made up of the same thing." She explained that she did not want the video to just be about "Taking it off", that the message behind the video and the theme wasn't "just about taking off your clothes and rolling in glitter. It's also about taking off your inhibitions and being raw and real". The video starts off with Ke$ha seen on a motorcycle. She proceeds to walk as her friends follow behind her as they enter a motel area. As the chorus of the song starts, Ke$ha and her friends start to run around the motel dancing and jumping off railings. The friends gather around an empty pool and start tearing at each other's clothing; While this is happening it is revealed they that are on a different planet and Ke$ha is seen rolling around in sand. Slowly as some of the friends start taking off their clothing, they begin to turn into star dust. The group starts to dance in the pool with some of the party goers exploding into dust. The remainder of the friends continue to dance in the dust that is now covering the bottom of the pool. As this is happening they all begin to lose different parts of their bodies as they explode into multicolored star dust. The video ends with everyone as dust with Ke$ha beginning to "unzip" herself as she turns into yellow dust. Jocelyn Vena of MTV News met the video with a positive review. She noted that Ke$ha "manages to embrace her inner party animal and throw a neon-colored party at an abandoned motel in the middle of nowhere." She stated that "While the concept of "a lot of pretty people dancing at dusk" is pretty simple, the neon colors manage to amp up the video, as does the colored sand that's thrown around in the air and mixed with glitter." Her conclusion of the video and of Ke$ha was that as simple as it may be, "she manages to be both sexy and fun while rolling around in the desert." Melinda Newman of HitFix criticized the video's first half, calling it "predictable." The video's second half, however, was met with praise with Newman commenting that the 'special effects at the end almost redeem it." K$ N' Friends version: The video is intended to look 80s themed with inspiration drawing from movies of that time. The song's second video was released via Ke$ha's YouTube account. She revealed the video's completion, release and inspiration through a video description quote saying, "heyy to all my fans! so me and my friends were bored and we were really channeling some 80's inspiration (Tron, David Bowie in Labyrinth, and Revenge of the Nerds.) and we made this new video for take it off. it was really fun to make. i hope you guys like it". The video was directed by Skinny. This version of the video is known as "Take it Off (K$ N' Friends Version)". The video has since been removed. The video begins with a scene of a leopard with glowing blue eyes (later revealed to be Ke$ha) walking down an alleyway. The song's title flashes on the screen and the video pans to Ke$ha. She walks down the alleyway with two men who grab another man. Ke$ha spray-paints a dollar sign on his chest. They come to a party where she and her friends flash their tattooed dollar signs on their wrists and forearms in order to enter. As they enter, everyone starts dancing and the party-goers' faces are shown changing into different animals'. In the following scene, Ke$ha is seen sitting on a chair with two men by her side. ]]Jeffree Star]] then approaches Ke$ha. Ke$ha and Star engage in a choreographed dance battle; Star then shoots Ke$ha with a laser chain saw which she deflects with her bracelet, Ke$ha responds by shooting lasers out of her hands, killing Star. After the battle the party-goers crawl around Ke$ha and she is seen holding a gold cup with a blue foaming liquid spilling over the top of the glass. As Ke$ha gives the party goers a drink, their faces turn into different kinds of animals. The video ends with everyone dancing and turning into half animal humans, Ke$ha however, drinks from the cup and turns back into a leopard. References *BMI | Repertoire